TheDailyMeal.com: How to Make Domino's Thin Crust Pizza at Home

Pizza Sauce

The pizza sauce was a no-brainer, because if cloner Todd Wilbur was able to fool a Domino’s pizza employee with it, we considered ourselves fooled, too. He includes crushed tomatoes, tomato purée, and a plethora of herbs in his sauce, and he simmers it with sugar so that it gets nice and thick. We made one slight change, though, and that was the addition of Parmesan cheese, for just a touch more flavor.

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The crust of this pizza is unique. No, it’s not just that it’s thin (duh), but it’s crunchy and hard, and breaks off like a cracker when you bite into it. To get a hard, crunchy crust, I used high-protein bread flour, because the more protein in flour, the harder and firmer the dough will be. The rest of the ingredients are typical, all-natural, pizza dough ingredients that you see in most recipes

Like with all kinds of dough, the dough needs to rest so that the yeast can do its work. The more the yeast has a chance to grow, the firmer the dough will be, so this pizza dough needs to rest overnight in the refrigerator.

The pizza sauce was a no-brainer, because if cloner Todd Wilbur was able to fool a Domino’s pizza employee with it, we considered ourselves fooled, too. He includes crushed tomatoes, tomato purée, and a plethora of herbs in his sauce, and he simmers it with sugar so that it gets nice and thick. We made one slight change, though, and that was the addition of Parmesan cheese, for just a touch more flavor.

The best way to get a pizza crust really thin is to sheet the dough into the pan, which is done by most professionals using a dough roller. I wasn’t about to go out and buy an industrial dough roller, though, and I’m sure you’re not either. You’ll be fine rolling the dough with a rolling pin; just make sure to get it to about 1/8 of an inch thick, and use flour for dusting so that more of it is incorporated into the dough, which helps make the crust thick and hard.

While I’m a sucker for big, brown bubbles that burst from the dough on my pizza slice, they don’t have a place on a Domino’s thin-crust pizza. In order to prevent any bubbling to occur, you have to "dock" the dough, or gently puncture its surface all over with a fork.

Because a good, crunchy crust comes with ample amount of time in the oven, you have to prebake the dough for a bit before adding the toppings. By baking it for about five minutes all on its own, the dough gets a head start and will be at a perfect texture right when the cheese is, too.

Speaking of cheese, there’s something special about Domino’s, and I’m not talking about the synthetic gleam of it. I’m talking about the tiny green specks that you see all over it, and taste every time you take a bite. To replicate this, mix 1 tablespoon of oregano or marjoram, or a combination of both, with the shredded mozzarella before topping the pizza.

Our crust is pre-baked, our sauce and cheese have been added, and the dough is even shaped into a square to make it easier to cut into later on (because who likes getting stuck with those tiny triangles when you cut a round crust into squares?).

I’m a New Yorker, and I can appreciate good pizza. I can also appreciate a taste and texture I like, and reliability, and that’s what I get when I eat a Domino’s thin-crust pizza. I probably won’t stop ordering it, and the judgmental scoffs won’t do anything to change my mind, but in the spirit of cooking, and hey, maybe even to try to make it healthier, here’s a recipe for their thin crust for you to make at home.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comcast.

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